Novel Updates

Each Monday, you should choose one of the DISCUSSION QUESTIONS to answer in the Blackboard
Discussion pages. First, write which pages you read that week. Then, choose one question to answer.
To receive full credit for your novel updates, you must:
1) Type the question(s) you chose for that week and fully answer them.
2) Write well organized, complete answers.
3) Show that you are progressing in your novel as planned.
4) Show that you understand what you have read.
5) Support your opinions with facts, and give quotations from the novel to support your answers.
6) Show an understanding and tolerance for the culture that you are reading about.
7) Use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.
8) Use quotations, summarizing and paraphrasing correctly.
9) Use paragraphs effectively.
10) Write a brief comment on one other persons novel update. Your comment should reference specific
things that he or she wrote, showing why you agreed or disagreed or were impressed or upset by it.
Each of the above points will be worth one point. A student who does all 10 things will get a 10 on their
novel update. A student who misses one thing (for example, forgot to comment on anothers novel
update) will receive a 9. A student who misses two things will receive an 8, etc.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Describe the events that happened in the first section that you read. How did they make you feel? What is
your initial reaction to the novel?
2. Identify the protagonist. List three (3) physical characteristics. Identify three (3) personality traits.
Provide one example from the story to support each personality trait. (NOTE: Do not repeat yourself by
saying "kind, nice, and sweet" as personality traits. Each trait must be distinctly different.)
Hezbollah:
Terrorist organization found they could win using terrorism
Its in Lebanon its proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah
Strong military guerrilla warfare: roadside bombs, and smarts bombs
Iran:
Powerful: no army can stand in the way of martyrdom
Hostile: death to America
Complex: even Iranians themselves have trouble understanding their own country
Iraq:

Weak: Saddam held the country together reconstituted Iraq into three provinces
Brutal: held the country together only with extreme brutality
Manipulated: Iraqi Shia can be manipulated bribed and cowed

3. What is the main conflict in the novel? Explain it in detail, giving examples from the book.
4. Explain the meaning of the title. Look beyond the obvious: My Name is Asher Lev has more significance
than the fact that his name is Asher Lev!
5. Describe the cultural background of your characters. What new information that you are learning about
this culture that you didnt know before? Are there any questions you have about the culture that the book
hasnt answered?
6. With which character do you most identify? Explain using examples from the character's life and your life.
If none, explain the differences between yourself and the most opposite character from you using examples
from the character's life and yours.
7. Is the novel based upon the workings of the heart (meant to affect you emotionally) or of the mind (meant
to make you think)? Explain why using at least three (3) example from the novel.

8. What is the main theme of your novel? (An idea that is introduced, relating to the plot - like power,
jealousy, etc.) How does your author deal with that theme in the novel? What message does the author want
the reader to understand about the theme? What is your opinion about it?
9. Write the last sentence of your novel. Explain how the conclusion of the novel leads up to that sentence.
Is this sentence appropriate as "the last sentence" of your book? Why or why not?
10. Would your novel be different if the main character was of the opposite gender? (Assume that significant
others would change genders as well, if that is a factor.) Explain how this change would or would not affect
your story.
11. Most of the novels you are reading deal with either a culture being dominated by another culture (as in
Things Fall Apart) or a culture in Diaspora (a group that has had to leave its culture and currently lives as a
minority group among another culture). Which does your book deal with? How does dominance or Diaspora
affect the lives of the characters in your novel?